Awaiting the Cascades

For the last nine days I've wandered through the pleasant though cow-infested and rather waterless Kettle River Range, where there are some good trails and scenic camp sites but also a fair amount of road walking, and then the lower sagebrush dotted Okanagon, where it's hot and dusty. Ahead though lie the North Cascades and the longest stretch of high mountain wilderness on the whole trail. After resupplying here in Oroville, and enjoying some fresh food (and beer!), I'll be heading into the Cascades for 150+ miles.

Through the Selkirk Mountains

Between my resupply points of Bonners Ferry and Northport (where I am staying at the wonderful Matteson's B&B)lie the Selkirk Mountains. These rocky granite hills are rough, dramatic and grand, the wildest and most spectacular landscape since Glacier National Park at the start of the trail. They are little visited - in ten days I saw just two other backpackers and a few day hikers near roadheads - and the trails are rugged, steep and often brushy and hard to follow. In places they fade away altogether and bushwhacking is the only option. Above timberline this is relatively easy, just a question of finding a way across gnarled whitebark pine and juniper dotted granite boulders and scree. Below timberline bushwhacking is just that, a desperate thrash through dense head high tangled undergrowth. Unable to see my feet much of the time I stumbled and tripped over rocks and logs. My trekking poles helped keep me upright, except when they became entangled in branches and bushes. When possible I followed faint animal trails - made by bears or moose or elk - but these never went my direction for long. The day I spent mostly bushwhacking it took me 101/2 hours to progress 10 miles and I made camp exhausted, scratched, bruised and feeling as though the forest had just chewed me up and spat me out. I was thankful that most days were not like that. Afterwards the next standard forest trail seemed like a groomed city park path. I climbed several summits, the highest of which, and the highest of the walk so far, was 7308 foot Abercrombie Mountain. This is a slate and shale mountain on the western edge of the Selkirks with a fine rocky summit and an extensive view of hills and forests fading into the distance in every direction. From this summit I have come down to just 1200 feet and the Columbia River, beyond which lies the gentler Kettle River hills, where I head next.

Through the Purcell Mountains

Between my resupply points of Eureka and Bonners Ferry I crossed the steep, rugged Purcell Mountains and left Montana for Idaho. The Purcells are mostly wooded though there are some open areas with views. Trails are often sketchy and there are few signs so careful navigation is required in the dense forest. My compass has seen much use. Water and camp sites are rare on the steep slopes. I've carried more water than expected and squeezed the tent onto some tiny sites. But that's all part of the adventure.

Across the Rockies

Ten days into my Pacific Northwest Trail hike and I've crossed the Rocky Mountains. The first five days were in the glorious rock and ice scenery of Glacier National Park. There the trails are maintained, backcountry camp sites have to be booked inuyb advance, and a permit listing many conditions is required. The mountains are busy and I met many hikers and at least one ranger every day and camped with others every night. I loved the landscape but it did not feel like a wilderness trip, though a tremendous thunderstorm on day four did add a little excitement. Then I left Glacier for the Whitefish Mountains, via the entertaining and friendly hamlet of Polebridge. Suddenly there were no rangers, no permits, no camp sites and no other hikers. I had the wilds to myself. The trails were often overgrown, sometimes hard to find and I had to hunt out camp sites in the dense forest. The hills were lower than in Glacier but felt wilder. The weather went from thundery to heatwave and there was little water on the long ridges followed by the Whitefish Divide and Highline Trails. By the time I dropped down to the Tobacco Plains and the little town of Eureka I felt the walk had really begun. Next comes a week in the even wilder Purcell Mountains.

Looking back to Glacier from the Whitefish Mountains

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Preparing For The Trail

Issaquah on warm summer evening. Two days of sorting supplies, last minute planning and walks in the lovely forests of the Issaquah Alps. Two young black bears watched us from the trees today. Tomorrow the long drive east to Montana and Glacier National Park with my cousin and her daughter. Then the walk begins.

All photos with my Pacific Northwest Trail reports are taken with the HTC Desire phone.

Scandinavia End-to-End

Many years ago I spent a rather wet summer hiking south to north through Norway and Sweden. I never wrote much about this walk - just one magazine article as far as I remember - as there was little interest in it despite it passing through some of the wildest and most spectacular landscapes in Western Europe. Nowhere else in our crowded continent can you walk 2200 kilometres in roughly a straight line and be in wild country most of the time. Publishers however did not find Scandinavia interesting and where the Yukon was seen as romantic and the Munros as popular, and so my long walks in both worth books, Norway and Sweden were seen as unknown and dull. I had thought the walk long forgotten until a Swedish backpacking acquaintance, Jörgen Johansson, contacted me to say he'd mentioned it to members of the Nordic Lightpacking group on a recent meet and they were interested to know more about my trip. An interview followed and can be found on Jörgen's site here. The Nordic Lightpackers know now that this was not a lightweight trip!

Photo info: the walk took place long before digital cameras and I've never scanned any of the slides I took so I have no digital images. Instead here's a winter picture of the Hardangerjøkulen, an ice cap in southern Norway that I walked below and which I have skied up on several occasions. Canon 300D, 18-55mm lens @45mm, 1/125@f8, ISO 100, raw file processed in Lightroom 3.